Rancid + Rise Against

I just came back from the Forum in Inglewood. I watched what was supposed to be the best punk rock show in a long time: Rancid + Rise Against. Instead, I came back completely disappointed... big deception...

1. The place is the wrongest possible place for a punk rock show. It is a huge place, so acoustics are wrong. Punk rock requires small places without echoes and good acoustics: it is very fast, so if you play in a big place, the sound is too bad.

2. Rise Against suck. They used to be good. I read in many places that the last albums were pop, not punk. I could not believe it. Now, I regret not having taken those complaints seriously. The people around were "normal" people. The atmosphere was wrong. The only songs worth listening to were the old ones. All the new ones really suck. From now on, I will consider this band stopped doing anything meaningful several years ago. Never coming back to any of their shows.

3. Rancid should be careful who they play with. They played before Rise Against!! What's that?!! Rancid has been/is/will be infinitely better than those poppers called RA. They played their set of songs, left, everybody told them to come back and somebody in the organization came to the stage to say they were not playing again. It was RA's turn... WTF?! I got really annoyed, angry, pissed off... And the people around me again... Some stupid girl said something like: Why do they want Rancid to continue playing... Who cares about Rancid... If they do not make smarter choices, they will have to retire prematurely.

4. I did not buy a T-shirt for this show and I am happy about that. It sucked. This tour sucks. If Rancid continue doing this they will lose many fans.

After all that, some photos:

- Me at the entrance of the Forum (where LA Lakers used to play):



- RANCID, a punk rock show legend:







- A band that used to be decent some years ago and sold out at some point. Their name... who cares...